Hi all,

Well, finally doing it, I've been collecting conversion bits for the last couple of years, and I guess I've been a bit afraid of the unknown and put off starting this.
But I've got much inspiration from the likes of Helbus, Sunnyjim, and karman141, Joel etc.
Going to run twin radiators in the engine bay.
Please, don't be afraid to comment, especially if you see me doing something wrong!
This is a big learning curve for me.
Cheers Johno

chelliJ

congrats on making the move

where abouts are you? I am in brisvegas

post some pics on what you have and take it from there

good advice will come from all angles

Looking forward to following it.

There is a broad opinion on what is 'doing it wrong'. Just ask plenty of questions, read a few of our build threads, put up pics of what you are doing, and it should go along pretty smooth. But it won't, it will fight you a bit, but be strong, and make it happen.

First up I pulled the engine from the liberty, purchased in Canberra for $500, 200k on it, drove it home, ran beautifully

Engine came out fairly easily, wiring harness wasn't much fun, a quick call to Alan at AM autos steered me in the right direction. He told me what he needed and how to get it out.
Here it is all boxed up, sent it away 10 days ago, Miles called me yesterday to let me know it was on its way back, quick service.

I bought this sump from small car.com back when our dollar was better than the US.

Fitting was pretty straightforward, just had to make a 15mm spacer to lift the dipstick tube up.

Bought a volks conversions kit off ebay, hadn't been used. It fitted up quite nicely

Pulled the old engine out on Saturday

Couldn't wait to slot it in there and get an idea of where everything's going to go, couldn't believe how small the suby engine is, and how well it fitted.

Take a tip from Volkswagen and put the radiator up the front.
Also copy the cooling system from the Subaru as you have the car .

Plenty of people have made the twin rear rad setup work.

Coming along well Johno, keep us updated.

be interested to see the oil capacity of the sump.

take the sump off, walk to the edge of your property & throw it as far as you can. Let it be someone else's problem before it becomes yours.

With the amount of work you are doing yourself, you seem more than capable to make your own with the correct oil capacity, if not more capacity like I did.

Engines back out, just playing around with the radiators and lower crossmember.

Got a question, whats the electrical plug pictured, is it some kind of ancient diagnostic plugin? Where do all the wires go and can I remove it? Or should I just move it?

Cheers Johno

That plug is the VW diagnostic plug from the day. I just left mine where it was in our beetle but not sure what would happen if it was just turfed.

Yogie

Great idea putting the radiators in the engine bay, A friend of mine has the same set up using twin Porsche boxter radiators and has no issues for over two years in all types of weather, I see all the ugly front mounted radiators and it just kills the looks of the car, just have to make sheet metal panels around the radiator so all the air from the cooling vents pass through the radiators.

johnno

great work
what rads are u using?

I'm using the same radiators that the busaru guy on YouTube used.theyre honda civic ek/ej.

They're triple core so hopefully will do the job. Size wise, they fit snugly between the chassis and top of the engine bay.

I've just taken them this afternoon to have the caps welded closed.

Got the wiring loom back today, feeling a little more confident about the wiring after seeing it, looks reasonably straight forward.....I think.

Ordered a throttle body reverser from RJES, that was getting posted today.

New clutch arrived today too, it's all happening.

I'll through some pics up tomorrow.

Cheers Johno

you should be up and running in a few months

you probably have to move one of the radiator out let fittings so the water flows from the top and all the way down to the bottom so its gets to cool correctly, the same way as it would when the radiator was mounted in the donor car . it the picture the bottom half of the radiator aint doing nothing with the outlet half way up the side of the tank.

Quote:

Originally posted by ian.mezz you probably have to move one of the radiator out let fittings so the water flows from the top and all the way down to the bottom so its gets to cool correctly, the same way as it would when the radiator was mounted in the donor car . it the picture the bottom half of the radiator aint doing nothing with the outlet half way up the side of the tank.

Quote:

Originally posted by chellejohno Quote: Originally posted by ian.mezz you probably have to move one of the radiator out let fittings so the water flows from the top and all the way down to the bottom so its gets to cool correctly, the same way as it would when the radiator was mounted in the donor car . it the picture the bottom half of the radiator aint doing nothing with the outlet half way up the side of the tank. Yeh Ian, I've got the same concern re the outlet placement. I'll see what it does initially and worst case pull it out and move it. Cheers

Hi Johno,

I would'nt be to concerned about the location of the radiator inlets/outlets - gravity has nothing to do with the flow. The cooling system is pressurised and driven by a pump - some people just can't accept that radiators in the engine bay work.

My first radiator actually flows in the bottom and out the top. As long as they are in series it won't be a problem. The only problem you may have with the outlet location is bleeding all the air out of the radiators. Just make sure your header tank/filler is at the highest point.

Looking good.

Cheers.

Quote:

Originally posted by karmann141 Hi Johno, I would'nt be to concerned about the location of the radiator inlets/outlets - gravity has nothing to do with the flow. The cooling system is pressurised and driven by a pump - some people just can't accept that radiators in the engine bay work. My first radiator actually flows in the bottom and out the top. As long as they are in series it won't be a problem. The only problem you may have with the outlet location is bleeding all the air out of the radiators. Just make sure your header tank/filler is at the highest point. Looking good. Cheers.

Got a couple of questions fellas,

Need to change the fuel tank outlet barb, but having trouble finding the right one, pretty sure Helbus did it but I need to know whether to change the whole fitting or just the barb?

If I use one of the two fuel tank breathers as the fuel return line, do I just connect the fuel return line directly to the tank inlet by drilling a hole thru the firewall panel? I don't connect to one of the breather pipes in the engine bay do I?

What's the black wire on the left side of the engine bay that connects to the coil and has an inline fuse?

Black wire with the inline fuse is the power for the reverse lights

The outlet off my fuel tank had a thread I was able to fit a screw on barb with a hose size to suit a VL Commodore type EFI fuel pump. The return was put on one of the engine bay breather pipes.